New name, new location

Since we've just changed the band name to Mezzo Mestizo, we thought it would be a good time to move the ol' beer blog to our main website. Our blogger account will remain as an archive, but all new posts will be at mezzomestizo.com. Cheers!

Tonight @ Boulder Beer!

Free CDs, great beer, and music on the patio! Mestizo pairs especially well with Mojo IPA. See ya tonight!

The Tap Hunter Approacheth

TapHunter.com now has a Denver/Boulder channel up and running, and Jon has been spending some time over there. Check out his posts:

• Keystone Bluegrass and Beer recap
• Jon's Denver Beer Fest picks to keep you occupied until GABF

Beer on the brain!

-Jon

Bard's Gold (bottle) - 2.4

Bard's Gold
American Lager (Gluten-free)
Bard's Tale Beer Company
Minneapolis, MN
ABV: 4.6%

Jon:
Pretty sure this is my first sorghum beer. Nicely sweet orange aroma--but looks and tastes like someone put a drop of soap in a Shock Top. Very unique. I guess not a horrible option if you really need to go gluten-free, but I haven't tried many in this category to compare.

2.2	Appearance Aroma Palate Flavor Price Buzz Overall 2/5 7/10 1/5 3/10 2/5 2/5 5/10

Mark:
Bard's is an odd beer. It looks great, tastes slightly sweet and slippery with a bitter and sweet molasses aftertaste.

2.4	Appearance Aroma Palate Flavor Price Buzz Overall 2/5 7/10 3/5 3/10 2/5 2/5 5/10

Jere:
Free of wheat, barley, rye, oats, and taste. But I somehow toughed it out. Or at least I'm trying to...

2.3	Appearance Aroma Palate Flavor Price Buzz Overall 2/5 7/10 2/5 2/10 2/5 3/5 5/10

GABF 2009

The Great American Beer Festival was over a month ago, but I can still taste it like it was yesterday. Here's some of the great stuff I came across:

• I had somehow never tried a brew by Shmaltz Brewing despite the fact that I've passed it by at more than one local liquor store. What a mistake! The Bar Mitzvah 13th Anniversary Ale was great--built like a barley wine with lots of extra hops, very balanced. They also put out a rye IPA that I will definitely be looking for again.
• I finally got to try Stone's Sublimely Self-Righteous Ale and it didn't disappoint. It had a sweet maple syrup nose with herby, peppery undertones. Complexity can be good.
• I once drank an awful green chili beer in New Mexico that I thought had ruined me on the concept forever, but CooperSmith's green chili beer won me back. Reminiscent of Twisted Pine's Billy's Chilies, maybe even a tad more flavorful.
• Dogfish Head always brings some crazy stuff to the GABF, but they topped themselves this year with a beer they call Chicha. This selection was brewed in a traditional South American method which apparently involves chewing and spitting out the maize that goes into the beer in order to break down the starches. Brewer saliva? I couldn't pass that up! It was very sweet and floral, heavily dominated by the flavor of strawberries (not sure if the strawberries they used made it into any mouths or not). One of the most interesting beers I've had the pleasure of drinking, at least in terms of back-story.
• I got another taste of Sam Adam's Utopias this year (I somehow missed it last year), which I already wrote about in 2007 so I'm not sure why I'm bringing it up again. Oh right, because it's frickin' epic! Everyone needs to try this stuff. Seriously.

I'll be there again next year, and you should be too. Hurray beer!

-Jon

Spoiler Alert! LOST puzzle solution from Wired's May issue

I hope this doesn't go against the spirit of Wired's May mystery issue, but I figure since they've already spilled the beans on the metapuzzle, it's probably time to do the same with the LOST puzzle on pages 104-105 since the season finale it relates to has already aired.

Page 104 was solved by Steven Bevacqua (also the first person to solve the metapuzzle), who used a Vignere cypher to decrypt this message:

U S E L E T
T E R S B A
C K W A R D S F
R O M E N D

Steve credits Nick Tierce for the idea that the page was an alphanumeric code. I had nothing to do with solving this page and merely used the clue that they unearthed.

Page 105 solution:
In the recent LOST episode "The Variable," there is a quick shot of Wired issue 11.08 from August 2003. Scott Dadich's twitter hint led me to the time travel article in that issue. The part of the article on Thorne Plates refers to the "Casimir Effect," which was also referenced on LOST in the past. In order to USE LETTERS BACKWARDS FROM END, count the letters backwards from the end of the Thorne Plates portion of the article. So, count 4 letters back (the "t" in "trip"), then 34 letters back from that (the "h" in "happen") and so on. The final solution is:

T H E F O U
R T O E D S
T A T U E I S
T A W E R E T

which refers to one of the reveals in the Season 5 finale of LOST.

-Jon

Wired's LOST puzzle

I just out-nerded my already rather nerdy self by spending many an hour figuring out the LOST number puzzle in the May issue of Wired magazine. The answer turned out to be one of the many reveals of last week's finale, so kind of a letdown that no one apparently figured it out in time, but still satisfying to get it out of my brain.

-Jon

The Tunes

Mestizo is getting ready to release a new album, so I figured it was high time to put some new songs up in here. Check out the new section in the sidebar called "The Tunes" to listen to the songs we have available on iLike/Facebook (it's kind of far down the page... this is a Beer & Tunes blog, not a Tunes & Beer blog). "Hostage" and "Fade" are from the new album, out on May 16th! If you're in Colorado, you can grab a copy at our CD release party:

Saturday, May 16th - 7:30pm - $5 cover
The D'Note - www.dnote.us
7519 Grandview Ave, Arvada, CO
with Melissa Ivey and My Friend Tom!

-Jon

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Today's to-do list:

• Cerveza.
• Siesta.
• Más cerveza.

Happy Cinco to all the other Mestizos out there.

-Jon

7th Annual Boulder Strong Ale Fest

Not much time for new beers lately since we've been putting all our effort into the upcoming album, but Mark and I did get a chance to hit up the Boulder Strong Ale Fest this year. We were joined by the usual Kate and Jim, plus beer fest first-timer Rico. Since we are accustomed to unlimited pours at GABF, we were shocked to learn that we would only be receiving 16 coupons each. One coupon is good for a two-ounce pour of 8% ABV or higher ale. I put some extra cash in my pocket, thinking I'd need to buy quite a few more tickets to get through the night. But hold the phone, this is some stroooong beer. Not a single one of us used all of our tickets. But we did get in on some good stuff--here are some highlights:

• Great Divide's Hercules IPA is a full-on, all-up-in-yer-bizness IPA, with an explosion of citrusy hops. I can't believe I've somehow avoided it at my local liquor store this long. Shame on me.
• Pizza Port had some great offerings in the double IPA category, including the piney "Killer Dana" from San Clemente and the amazingly hoppy "Poor Man's IPA" from Carlsbad.
• Moylan's Brewery brought along Wet Hopsickle, which was quite reminiscent of Stone IPA (a very good thing). Also, Green Flash Brewing's Imperial IPA reminded me of Redhook's Longhammer IPA (also a good thing). Reminiscent, but with nearly twice the alcohol.
• The ever-present New Belgium brought along the mysteriously-named Kevin's Ale. It's described on the info sheet as a "strong golden ale with spices." Call me unrefined, but I couldn't get past the ginger to find any other spices. You got yourselves some very alcoholic ginger ale there, dudes.
• I also liked Redstone Meadery's Nectar of the Hops. I haven't had a lot of experience with mead, but it tastes like a syrupy agave nectar. Really not bad at all.
• I gotta throw a shout out to Alpine Beer's Pure Hoppiness, merely for the fact that I tried it toward the end of the night and wrote nothing but "bueno" in my notes. Did I mention that these were strong ales?

All in all, a good beer fest. But I must say that Harpo's is waaaay too small for this event. It took half of our coupons to stop being annoyed by the closeness of the crowd and enjoy ourselves.

-Jon

Halloween with Devotchka

Devotchka likes Halloween. Last year at the Fillmore Auditorium in Denver, they dressed up as dead mariachis. This year at the Boulder Theater, they were colonial Americans. I love their music, love their shows, and especially love them on Halloween. And they really make me want to buy a theremin. Haven't heard 'em? Go watch Little Miss Sunshine, buy their CDs, and/or catch a concert. You won't be disappointed. Gypsy rock never sounded so good.

On a mostly unrelated note, I dressed as Waldo this year (of "Where's Waldo" fame). Holy hell, I had no idea that I was jumping on the biggest Halloween bandwagon since sheets with eye-holes. Waldos everywhere. But even worse, every other person that passes you on the street decides to harass you with what he thinks is a hilarious quip. So if you ever find yourself dressed up as Waldo for one reason or another, here's some replies for the passersby that can't help but ask "Where have you been?!?!" and die laughing:

• Looking for someone to buy me a drink.
• Trying to find a friggin' restroom.
• Kicking the ass of the last guy who asked.
• Hanging out with your mom, mostly.

You'll be sure to have an interesting night.

-Jon

GABF Report, 2nd edition

The Great American Beer Festival was a few weeks ago now, but my memory is pretty good when it comes to beers. Props to first-timer Dan for joining Kate, Jim, and I this year, and sorry to the many people that could've gone on Friday night had we gotten tickets sooner. Apparently I was in the mood for uniquely overpowering brews this year, because that's definitely what caught my eye:

• Avery's 15th Anniversary Ale wins my award for uniqueness. Hibiscus and white pepper are strange beer ingredients, but it makes for a surprisingly drinkable (and just plain surprising) brew.
• Rocky Mountain Brewery's Smoked Hefe is wickedly intense. It's nearly as smoky as the last bottle of mezcal that I bought. Liquid smoke.
• Speaking of smoky, Arbor Brewing's Engine #9 is a bit more palatable than Rocky Mountain's Smoked Hefe. Smoked Hefe is like putting a campfire in your mouth. Engine #9 is like cooking smoked bacon in your mouth. Mmmmmmm, bacon.
• Twisted Pine's Oak Whiskey Red picks up a huge alcohol taste from aging in bourbon barrels for 3 months. It tastes a helluva lot like Maker's Mark... I really want to find out where they get their barrels.
• Despite the mildly sexist name, Bull & Bush's Man Beer was one of my favorites of the night. Crisp, intensely earthy hops; like licking grapefruit juice off a pine tree (if you can imagine that being a pleasant experience).
• And to round out the list, Tröegs Brewing's Hopback Amber is quite possibly the most balanced ale I've ever tasted. Nothing overpowering here, just straightforward flavors that stand up to each other nicely.

So there you have it. Another year, another beer fest. Lesson learned this year: If you show up right when the doors are about to open, don't follow the arrows to the end of the line. You'll just end up walking around the entire convention center. Literally.

-Jon

Random update

Oh little beer blog, how I neglect you so. I should be recapping beer fest, but then I saw this and had to share: Cancer-fighting beer

I love science.

-Jon

GABF Tonight

I'll be making my way on over to the sold-out Great American Beer Festival tonight. I know you're maddeningly jealous, it's okay to feel that way. Unfortunately I'm going through some déjà vu... Just like last year, I'm recovering from a cold. And also just like last year, I warmed up with a Skinny Dip last night. Hopefully my sense of taste and smell will be up to par for the onslaught of one-ounce beers that are about to come my way.

-Jon

Blog-iversary

One year ago today, we set out on a mission to drink good beer and write about it. While we haven't always had the time or sober cognizance for the writing part, we did drink a lot of damn good beer. We'll be celebrating our blog-iversary this Saturday evening at the St. Julien Hotel by, um... playing music and drinking beer. May the beer and tunes keep flowing for many years to come!
Mestizo's Good Times Blog, Year One - The Rundown:

• Posts: 43
• Beers reviewed: 25
• Best beer: Mojo IPA (4.8)
• Worst beer: Pabst Blue Ribbon (1.7)
• Favorite brewery: Stone Brewing Company
• Favorite style: India Pale Ale
• Mestizo gigs: 35
• Bootleg tracks posted: 5
• Albums recorded: 1
• Most important lesson learned: If you must drink PBR, don't pour it in a glass.

Jon's new super-cool beer timeline:

Flight of the Conchords

These guys are hilarious. I can't even describe it. I'll just list some of my favorite lines of the night:

• "I think you've mistaken us for New Zealand."
• "Congratulations, bitches!"
• "Jesus is our drummer."

The new songs they're cooking up are great (look for "Angels" on YouTube sometime), and we got to hear a lot of our favorites. Bret singing the female vocal parts was pretty funny. The ongoing banter and the willingness of the crowd to heckle these two are probably the best parts about seeing them live. And they forget the words to their own songs even more often than I do. Sweet!

Où est la piscine? Splish splash?

-Jon

Pink Martini with the Colorado Symphony

Kate was the first to introduce me to Pink Martini, and after a great appearance at the Boulder Theater a couple years ago, we've seen them virtually every time they've been in town since. We finally got a chance to see them perform with the Colorado Symphony this month, and it was stellar. Pink Martini is a "mini-orchestra" that normally tours with 10-12 members, performing elaborate arrangements of tunes from old movies and some outstanding original compositions. The Cuban influence is the most outspoken in my rhythmic opinion, but the variety of styles present (not to mention the variety of spoken languages) is mind-boggling. I just plain love this band.

The show was at Boettcher Concert Hall (whose curvy walls I have only been inside a handful of times since the obligatory elementary school field trips of my youth), and the sound was rather impressive. We sat directly above and behind the wonderfully flamboyant and insanely talented pianist Thomas Lauderdale, whose hands were usually hidden from our view on the keys (that is, when they weren't up in the air during a dramatic gesture). Fortunately I could see inside the piano from my perch, and the way the hammers were pounding away on the strings I wouldn't have been surprised if he turned around and had a couple of extra arms. Hearing the pipes on China Forbes always leaves me speechless, and holy freakin' hell, they have three percussionists, and they all ROCK. They have so many sweet percussion toys, but I found a new favorite to drool over that night: machine castanets. They are a pair of castanets mounted to a base so you can hammer on them with your fingers, and they made quite the slick addition to the conga setup (hint hint, Mark). I believe the trombonist was absent from their last trip here, which was unfortunate, because he is crazy talented. He played an amazingly intricate piece with the symphony that was all over the place. Really amazing player.

Having a symphony backing up the band was quite the experience as well, though I didn't feel they were utilized to the fullest extent. They were only used as occasional accents for several songs, and they even sat out completely on a couple. (The vibes in particular could have been featured more often, in my opinion.) The difference in volume level when the symphony was full blast vs. them sitting out was a tad jarring too, though I suppose this couldn't be avoided. The conductor even provided a bit of comic relief during Thomas' unique rendition of Rhapsody in Blue--after the intermission, the drummer apparently forgot to release the switch on his snare, and it was vibrating horribly to the bass notes of the piano. The conductor went to go save the day during a piano solo, and he couldn't figure out how to to fix it! He gave up to get back to his duties, then went back for another attempt on the next solo. After a few nervous glances to the percussion section, he finally figured it out. Containing my laughter was almost too much for me... this guy is setting the tempo for an entire symphony, and he looks like he's never seen a snare drum in his life! But anyway, the quiet humor was welcome and it didn't kill the piece too badly (for me, at least). Definitely not something you see at the symphony every day!

So to sum up, the performance was great, conductors can be hilarious, and Mark needs to buy some machine castanets. I was also exceedingly happy to be joined in attendance by my favorite sister, my favorite brother-in-law, and my favorite girlfriend. Can't beat that!

Next up: Flight of the Conchords

-Jon

Juanes!

Summertime is concert time, which means that little local musicians like me get a chance to see what the big boys have to offer when they come to town. Kate and I saw Juanes at the Magness Arena last Friday, the latest stop on his "La Vida" tour. I don't know many Juanes songs, and I haven't even been a fan for that long, but it seemed like a great concert to start out the summer with, and we weren't disappointed.

As we all know, arena concerts are tough. The bad acoustics are generally handled by turning up the volume so loud you couldn't hope to hear an echo if you're anywhere near the stage. Kate and I were ten rows back, in front of a massive array of speakers, and we really got our heads blown off. The bass rattled my rib cage (the drummer sure loved his kick pedal) and the vocals were explosive, but the screaming fan behind us somehow took the cake as far as overbearing noise goes. Two pairs of emergency toilet-paper ear plugs and some minor hearing damage later, we got used to the volume and were able to enjoy the show. I guess we just didn't know that we were getting into full-blown Latin pop star territory, otherwise we would've been prepared with proper earplugs.

If you've been to a Mestizo gig, you've probably heard our cover version of "A Dios Le Pido" featuring the mangled-Spanish stylings of yours truly. Since it took awhile to get accustomed to the volume level, it was a tad unfortunate that the band started with this song. I was, however, grateful for one song that I knew the lyrics to, as my Spanish comprehension is at the sub-toddler level and Juan's ample between-song banter was entirely in Spanish. The Spanish-ignorant among us did get thrown a couple bones--a "thank you very much" and one bit about how he plays his guitar in English so we can understand him. One part of the show needed no translation--a slideshow of land-mine victims played on the sides of the stage during a slow ballad. It was cool to see a world-class performer who is so passionate about people and about music, which was the only thing that made the all-Spanish presentation a tad disappointing (other than my own lack of comprehension).

The music was really great--rockin' guitar licks, hip salsa beats, and lengthy vocals that just plain make me jealous. Let me tell you, this Columbian is real rockstar. There was a stage extension in the middle of the arena for Juan to strut on, and more than one female fan braved her way on stage to get up close and personal (one even wrestled her way out of a security guard's grip). I'm also the type that loves to watch a hand percussionist with an extensive setup, and this guy was busting out some complex rhythms. Expect some new Mestizo knock-offs in the near future if I'm ambitious enough to attempt any more of these impressive songs.

Next up: Pink Martini

-Jon

Allez Cuisine!

I try to spoil myself with good food and drink on a fairly regular basis, but I know I must be hard up for something new and exciting when I see an $11 beer on a menu and can't even think of not getting it. To my credit, it was bomber-sized, and I did go through more than one server trying to get an accurate description of it. Furthermore, one doesn't go to a sushi restaurant looking at prices--one fills oneself chock full of sushi until not another grain of rice can be consumed, all in the hope that such an overwhelmed stomach can't possibly regret a large bill at the end of the night. Throwing some beer and sake into the mix can't hurt either. Now that's what I call foresight.

Kate and I were at Sushi Tora, a restaurant that rightly claims the title of "Boulder's Best Sushi," boasting of real wasabi and homemade sauces. The fish is fresh, the chefs are friendly, even the rice has the perfect amount of vinegar to make your tongue sing. But back to beer. The beer I couldn't resist was Rogue's Morimoto Soba Ale, a buckwheat ale that has found the perfect companion in sushi. It's grainy, with just a tinge of hop flavor, and it's the cleanest finish you'll ever find in a beer. It's like having a tasty side dish of soba noodles in a bottle. In short, it will make you eat way too much sushi. And yes, "Morimoto" refers to the one and only Chef Masaharu Morimoto, no doubt the coolest of all Iron Chefs, east or west. I'm curious to see how this beer would stand up to other foods or by itself, but with sushi, it's my new king.

On another note, the writer's strike has reinvigorated my love for the Food Network, as it is now one of the only things worth watching on television. Its only failing is that it motivates me to eat, not cook.

-Jon

First Bite Boulder

Last weekend, Kate and I partook from the West End's offering in the annual First Bite Boulder event. I had the recommended beer flight with my meal, and I fell face first into the best beer pairing of my life so far:

Warm basil & roasted red pepper goat cheese dip
---paired with---
New Belgium's Mothership Wit

The tangy goat cheese mingled brilliantly with the slightly sour citrus flavors of the wit. I had it 4 days ago and I still can't get over it. And that was only the first course--the rest of the meal was wonderful as well. I was served a Stone IPA with the second course and Avery's Ellie's Brown Ale with the third, but nothing could quite match such a superb beer and cheese pairing.

I washed the meal down with a Buffalo Trace on the rocks, which was an okay choice for after dinner, but I wouldn't recommend it otherwise. It's very fruity, heavy on apple and pear flavors, and just isn't quite what I'm generally looking for in a bourbon.

All in all, it was quite an amazing meal. I'm definitely inspired to experiment with some beer and cheese pairings now. Be sure send any good suggestions my way.

-Jon